FCC's Clyburn: no "plan B" for spectrum auction

The Federal Communications Commission is confident television broadcasters will voluntarily sell their spectrum back to the government at the lowest price in order for the commission to repackage and auction it off to wireless carriers.

"We have no plan B. There's a plan A," said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Nov. 3 during the CSPAN program "The Communicators."

"We're doing all that we can to make sure that there are market synergies--that there are market forces, that there are market opportunities that both the buyers and sellers can take advantage of," added Clyburn.

Just two weeks prior, Gary Epstein, senior advisor to the chairman and co-lead of the commission's incentive auction task force, indicated that initial spectrum auction estimates may be overly optimistic.

Clyburn said she would not speculate how much spectrum the auctions would bring to market, but said the auctions have "the potential to really put us on a firm pathway of meeting the needs of this nation by way of mobile engagement."

She also said the auctions will free up enough spectrum to ensure that wireless carriers will not go back Congress requesting more spectrum.